UPDATE: That's all for today folks. Big thanks to Mr. Rosenstock (Esq.) and to all of you for taking part. Be sure to keep an eye out for more live Q&As in the coming days.Once again, we've returned to bring you another Fest inspired Q&A, this time with the dashing Jeff Rosenstock (of Bomb the Music Industry!, Kudrow and Really Records). Bomb the Music Industry! is in the midst of their last major stint of touring and will be playing The Fest Sunday, October 28 at 8 Seconds (so if you're a fan, don't miss it).

Jeff will be answering questions below under the user name "ReffJosenstock". As always, any rude or unnecessarily harassing questions may be removed.

Mike Huguenor sent me the record and I asked if I could be a part of it. I love their new record. Skylar did a great job recording it, it reminds me a lot of my favorite Silkworm stuff at point, kinda like my favorite Cribs stuff at other points. They're a good band and good friends, so I guess I'm lucky that no one else was putting it out already!

The North Bay is my favorite place to play shows. It feels like our home away from home, and there's also a lot of moments where I can't believe what's going on. We get to play Bottom of the Hill, a venue I've known about since I was a kid, and they are nice to us and don't treat us like shitty little jerks. I get to play shows with Jesse Michaels' new band, who are making awesome music, and I get to put out records with Mike Park who is not only the best dude ever but like, when I was a kid getting those Asian Man Records comps got me into so much good much, and DIY culture as well. So the fact that we have close buddies up in that scene really means a lot.

I mean, I KNOW I'm not currently done making music... we just recorded some fun Bomb stuff, I scored a short film a few weeks ago and I'm working on some things for this solo stuff I have coming up.

When things start kinda dying down and we all start doing whatever the next weird life thing it is that we all do, I'm sure music will still be a big part of me. I really like that it doesn't cost anything for me to make and distribute records thanks to the internet, so if I ever feel like writing a song and recording it chances are I'll just put it up for free still. Taking money out of the equation makes that shit super easy.

There's no plan to just start doing that or anything though. We honestly have no idea what we're gonna do in the future.

I'm not sure. I've always wanted to score movies, so maybe I'll be able to do that. I'm also trying to dig more into video editing and after effects stuff which I was kinda good at but then touring was so fun and so awesome that I was like, well fuck all that! Let's tour forever!! So, yeah, I'm not sure. If I'm lucky I'll be able to keep doing creative stuff for a job.

As far as Bomb goes, we still have a buncha stuff before we take a break. Still trying to do the south, Canada, Europe and Australia. And I am pretty sure we owe Alex an Art of the Underground single! We're the worst... are those still things?!

You were one of the first to really push the donation model in a more â??seriousâ?ť way. How has that worked out, and how much do records end up bringing in through the donations? Is it comparable on BTMI records with what you get from the physical releases on Asian Man?

The last Bomb record I really kept good track of with that stuff was Scrambles. Within the first little bit of time we made about $2,000 with about 20,000 downloads. So yeah, that's like ten cents per download but to us that's $2,000 of free money and 20,000 people who got our music who didn't before. So that shit's cool.

I'm not sure what we make through Asian Man because we usually buy records back from them to take out on tour. But y'know, it's all part of everything, maaaaaaaaaaaan...............

1. I still am not sure exactly what I'm doing. I figure I'll do a bunch of requests of whatever people want to hear for half the set. The other half, I think I'm gonna do new stuff? I keep having these really out ideas of loop pedals and octave pedals and different amps and stuff... but I don't know how to actually use that stuff, so maybe I should stay away! It'll be interesting for sure. Plus I sweat a lot and that for sure will be funny.

2. I gotta wear a costume for Halloween, but I don't know what it is yet. My favorite costume I've had was when I dressed up as "The Future" and wore a black hooded sweatshirt with a bunch of neon construction paper and an enormous remote control taped to the front of it. I was 25 years old, and I dressed up for Halloween to go to the bar up the street from me where Dave from ASOB was bartending and like, two other people were there. Adult shit.

while btmi won't be touring, will you be doing any solo touring? can you do a kudrow tour? that'd be so cool. also what's going on with really records and quote unquote? thanks for everything thus far, also. i've had some awesome times at your shows/listening to your music.

I've got a solo tour with Future of the Left and Andrew Jackson Jihad coming up (I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M TOURING WITH FUCKING FUTURE OF THE LEFT P.S.) We wanna do a Kudrow tour but The Cans are a BUSSSSSY band. Our schedules like never line up.

Really Records has two releases ready to go which I think are pretty exciting! But secret for now (except Hard Girls which i guess i was talking about already.) I am not sure what's next on Quote Unquote but there's some old records of buddies I'd really like to put out.

1. What's the status on the BtMI! documentary and is there a potential release date? 2. Are you really going to start work on a hardcore record? 3. Can you share any info on this secret project you're working on right now, is it the hardcore record?

1. I don't know the release date but Sara was definitely shooting some stuff this wummer on tour.
2. We were planning on it! Maybe it's not happening now!
3. What secret project? We recorded a song called "Big Kisses" just cause we were in the studio already recording something SUPER SECRET for SUPER SECRET MAN RECORDS

Boston fucking SUCKS to book an all ages show in. We've been playing the Middle East the past bunch of times, but after we were there with Cheap Girls last summer it seemed like it wasn't the best place for us. It always sells out. All the other all ages venues in Boston that I know of are like three times more expensive than the Middle East, so we're a bunch of babies and don't want to play a show in Boston and have it fail and lose a ton of money.

But fuck it we should totally do it and we'll do it soon and i'll remember this!

1. Not a question, but your set in Bloomington earlier this year was the best birthday I could've asked for. Thanks for being rad.
2. Fest is coming up. Can you convince me to see BTMI over A Wilhelm Scream?

It was my friend's first punk show and I don't know how he handled it. I don't think he understood that not every punk show has the possibility of breaking a whole bunch of nice recording equipment and that everyone needed to not be as insane as they were.

I've seen that you've played shows with groups I love like Das Racist and Future of the Left who I would never imagine having even heard of you guys. What do they think of Bomb? I always see Bomb as on a totally different level than other bands, so I'd be interested in hearing what Das Racist and FOTL think of your music (if they even talked to you that is).

We got to play with Future of the Left cause our buddies who book shows in Brooklyn asked me to "curate" a show for Northside and I said "uhhh... can we just play with future of the left instead?" All of them were incredibly nice, Andy even tried to return a power adapter to us the next night when I saw them at a different show.

We got to play twice with Das Racist - once because it was a venue in Long Island where some of us work and they've been trying to get us there for a while. The other was a college show where the kid booking it must have like both Bomb and Das Racist and got us both on there. Those dudes were super nice, we smoked weed together in Long Island and spoke a little bit at that college show in Wisconsin. Then I lost my bowl and weed somewhere, possibly my Dad's car.

Both super cool. It's always fun when we get to play with bands outside of our general scope that we like.

Hey Jeff! Big fan of all your stuff including ASOB. How do you think your evolution as Bomb The Music Industry has made you better as a musician? Did you ever think ALBUM MINUS BAND MP3 would ever take off? Your my favorite band ever and i hope before BTMI is truly over that you would stop by Washington D.C. one more time? Please? Ill bake you a cake.
Thanks
CoayBay

Well, I had to learn how to play piano on Goodbye Cool World, so I think that's gotta be the biggest thing that changed as far as me being able to play stuff.

I didn't think Album Minus Band was gonna take off, I figured 20% of the people who liked ASOB (which wasn't that many people) would hear it and then that'd be that. I'm pretty stoked that it turned into eight years of touring with my best friends.

We get along with Titus. They're super nice guys, but we've only played a few shows with them. It was really nice of them to play the benefit show I organized last year at the last second. When we showed up at the bar after, Patrick was already there with like twenty kids from the show. Total sweetheart. We're playing the Fest at the same show so you'll probably see us there.

Also they put out the best punk record so far this decade in my opinion. I forgot your second question.

Another question from me right quick, i know that their broken up but The Brave Little Abacus, is it possible they could maybe come back? I love those guys , persuade them with your charm to make another record soon. Thanks

Hey Jeff, big fan off all your stuff. I saw you perform with Bomb the last three years in a row in Santa Cruz, CA and have never been disappointed. Ok, now that the compliments are out of the way, Do you have an idea of what "semi-retired form Bomb the Music Industry Jeff going to be like? The way I interpret your "waterworks" post, I get the idea you want to still write songs and release stuff, just without the touring as much. Is that the case or if so, could you give us an idea of what "Semi-retired Jeff" will be like?

Are there enough recordings of you guys to do another track filled with stage banter like the one on Others! Others! I love listening to you guys bicker and John has a sexy speaking voice and stuff too.

When writing new things, what do you like to save ideas with so you don't forget them? (Computer? Cell phone? Tape recorder? Some crazy device I don't even know about?) You probably keep notebooks too?

I'm happy I can do it on my phone now. I used to write stuff on my hand while i was driving which was both dangerous and not particularly effective as it'd usually be illegible and mostly rub off anyway.

What's with that weird mood that bands are doing these days? Like the one on pretty much all of Vacation, and songs like "Grace" and "DMT" by the Sidekicks. Also all of the Hard Girls stuff. It's like that weird happy/sad/pensive thing? Are you pulling that off with chord construction, or using certain scales, or what?

No, no label has really ever wanted to do anything with us besides the labels we work with. And we wouldn't have worked with them if they didn't let us put stuff out for free. But they did and now we are the best of friends!!!

I lost the Nintendo samples that were in it and was too lazy to find 'em again. A lot of work down the drain. Dave Garwacke should have a video of me drunkenly trying to play "Ode to Divorce" at two in the morning with a broken wrist four years ago.

Doomtree tattoo that I got drunk around 11 in the morning on a dare from myself.

I love Cecil. He put me up in his house and played me Wugazi (blowing my mind) way ahead of time after a weird solo show I played in St. Paul. He then gave me some free coffee in the morning at his coffee shop. I really like all the Doomtree dudes that I've gotten to know.

And now it's time for "Doin' Crimes' with your favourite host owneoperator!
The segment where we ask your favourite musician for their deepest darkest secret!
Jeff, Have you ever stolen something from a store? Or do you have anything else you'd like to admit to us? Are you an outlaw? Bonus points for a story to accompany the answer.

When I was a kid (twelve? thirteen?) I stole Voodoo Glow Skulls' Firme from Tower Records. I couldn't believe I got away with it and I walked next door to Nobody Beats the Wiz to wait for my mom to pick me and my friend up. We sat in the fancy TV room on the soft couches and opened it and was talking to my friend about "OH WOW! I CAN'T BELIEVE I STOLE THIS! OH WOW!!" Then these two dudes walked in and were like "hey you stole that from here" and I was like "um, no, idiot, no I didn't" and they got really accusatory (probably because they heard us talking about stealing it) and then took us in the back and stuff and told my mom eventually that they were missing one copy of Firme from their stock. So I just kept saying "Nope, I did not steal this CD from Nobody Beats the Wiz" and then eventually they just got tired of me whining and let me go.

Can you play another show in Florida while you're here for Fest? The one time I saw Bomb live was one of the best nights of my life, even though it was a weird one for you lol. Remember Stardust in Orlando? You met my dad and he asked you to play Stand There til You're Sober only he called it the "one more beer song" lol. And my best friend and I met you and we forgot what words were.

Anyways, you should play another show since you're down here anyways! And get AJJ on it too! Because you guys rule!

I just want to say your music is amazing. It's really helped me out at all the times when I've been bummed out. I'm really thankful for all the awesome stuff you've released. It feels like people our age can identify with your lyrics so much. I just got into law school and I feel like the only punk here. I'll always have your records to help me remember where I came from. Thanks a lot, man.

i played a house show in rock hill once and watched Notorious that night at a motel with Mike Campbell... is that south carolina? we've always had a hard time finding all ages stuff in south carolina. we don't have a booking agent, so it's usually just me asking around... it's never quite worked well for south carolina for whatever reason.

Mike, seriously, that was one of our favorite shows of tour. So so so fun. Also, your friend Laura (Lori?) made us a ridiculous amount of food that night and that's one of my favorite memories of tour. FAVORITES!!!

Everything's pretty much fine. I have social anxiety so a lot of the time, all of the badness is on me.

I get bummed when fans interrupt other people who are talking to me, but like, what are you gonna do. When I broke my collarbone in the middle of tour and had to wear a sling, I got really tired of telling people why I was wearing a sling. That's about as bad as it gets.

How do you guys manage to live in one of the most expensive cities in the country while being in a band that gives away everything for free? Feel free to include copies of your tax returns from the last several years in your answer.

Well, we all have jobs besides this band. We also somehow make money being in this band. Before all of that stuff was working out, me and my now fiancee were splitting a bedroom in three-bedroom apartments so, y'know, even though it was tight space it was only $350 a month in rent. Moving out of that situation was difficult, but if you gotta make a certain amount of money to pay the rent, you figure it out.

The good thing about New York City is that if you get a job you'll likely make a lot more than you would in cheaper cities, so it all evens out.

If I remember correctly, at the BTMI show in LA you said you MIGHT come back before the Australia tour. PLEASE DO. I almost passed out from dehydration at that show. It was insane and I love all of you. Sorry this isn't a question.

Okay, I'm gonna answer the rest of these and then clean up the tacostuff I spilled all over the floor. Thanks for asking me these questions, for caring about the stuff me and my friends have done and thanks punknews for always being supportive of things!!

I could never explain in a punknews comment box how much of an effect you have had on my life, musically and morally (as far as all ages shows, vegetarianism, and free music). Happy Yom Kippour. I didn't fast today either. I wanted to ask if you'd continue doing ipod shows while BTMI was on "break", and I wanted to ask how your graphics design work is going. I'm about to graduate and I'm scared as shit about finding work and was even considering moving to Brooklyn to see if it would help find a job. Is that an ideal place for that kind of work? Thanks!

I do graphic design for old people and bands I like which makes it either unsatisfying or not paying super well. Be scared!!!

I don't have any plan to like, become a breakout solo artist or anything once BTMI goes on pause. I'm gonna try to work on some other shit. But I never know what I'm going to do. Most of my iPod tours I've booked pretty quickly before I went out, just cause I've thought "I need to get the fuck out of this city right now." So who knows.

One of my all time favorite moments was seeing you guys play a show up here in Moorhead, Minnesota a few years back at a bowling alley/venue called the All Star Bowl. You guys stayed at a house full of friends I went to college with.

My question pertains to a joke you made about being late because a bridge was missing in Minneapolis on your way up here (I-35 bridge collapse). Have you been doing edgy humor like that since for all your shows?

Hahaha. Oh man, in retrospect I REALLY wish we would have played in Fargo, as North Dakota is one of three continental United States we haven't played. Also, I remember we showed up late to that show (missing the show I believe?) because we wanted to ride the roller coaster in the Mall of America. That's Bomb in a nutshell right there.

If I said that I didn't mean to be edgy. That's a shitty thing to make fun of. Man, I REALLY hope I didn't say that!! What a fucking dick I am!!!

Yeah. I'm a pretty light sleeper. On tour I sleep with ear plugs in and a hooded sweatshirt pulled over my eyes to turn off the dark as spiderman the musical would say. The guys give me a hard time. What a bunch of jerks.

At your last show in Tampa, we weren't lucky enough to hear I Don't Love You Anymore, Syke! Life is Awesome, or a number of other BTMI classics. Is there any chance we will be lucky enough to hear these things on a solo tour that comes down to the Sunshine State? Not all of us can get off work for a whole weekend to make it up to Fest.

That's weird that we didn't play either of those songs! We try to mix up set lists on tour, usually putting a few "classics" as you said, but not all of 'em. If we put in all the classics, the set lists would be three hours. Cause all the songs are fucking classics, maaaaaaan.

We're gonna try to come through one more time and we'll play those for sure.

1. Okay, so being your usual self, you are being wicked cryptic about the future of bomb. The â??waterworksâ?ť post was written as if it was a break up post, however, it only mentioned the cessation of touring.
a. Will BOMB still be releasing music?
b. will there be full lengths?
c. Will Jeff be releasing solo music?
d. will Jeff have new projects?
2. Do you find it ironic that, to my understand, btmi was started because you quit music (ASOB broke up) and then realized you couldnâ??t live with out it? And it started as essentially your music outlet with friends coming and going as they couldâ?¦ sort of an anti band, eventually leading to its success (in my view). However, then the group naturally developed into a band , something it was originally not, which eventually led to its somewhat demise? (meaning, you guys are human beings and canâ??t live your lives touring $10 all ages shows as late 20-somethings). Anti band turns into a band which is the reason why the anti band turned band must stop touringâ?¦ Not sure if this made sense
3. Thank you being such an incredible, inspirational, selfless, and relatable musician. You have done so much to get your music out there and available to everyone, regardless of any negative effects on you. You truly are the best musician in the world, in my view, although you are going to dispute such a statement. Regardless, THANK YOU YOUâ??RE AMAZING!!

I was trying hard to not be cryptic, but honestly we're just really not sure what's up ya know?

1a. We're gonna give a dry run at not being a band for a while, which means no records or shows. If it seems like we're all happier, then that was that. If it seems like we're all miserable, we'll figure it out from there I guess.

b. Vacation was probably the last full length. I started writing a record called "I'm Serious, I'm Sorry." but it seems a bit on the dreary side.

c. I'm working on a "mixtape" (i think that's what the kids call it now) for my upcoming solo tour. It's called "I Look Like Shit"

d. Yeah, I'm sure we all will. I doubt we'll have the luck we had with Bomb the Music Industry, but that's coooool. Matt (Shinobu, The Simpsons) and I (Kudrow, The Simpsons) are in two other bands, John (Nix 86) and Tom (Jimmy and the Engineers) are in one other band (tom KINDA) and Mike has Binary Heart which he's fronting. We're all playin' music and goofing off. Maybe we'll just make The Cans take us all in again.

2. While playing all ages shows is a tough sell, I know more people come see us because shows are all ages due to the fact that more people can get in. $10 makes enough money at the door for a smart band on tour. I think there's just other things in this world to check out, and it's time for us to check some of that stuff out without being tethered to New York. No matter how great pizza is, if you ate it for every meal every day for eight years, you'd probably wanna give another food a shot.

3. Hahaha, thanks man! Yeah, there's really not been a whole lot of negative effects. We got to see the world, I got to get some darkness out in some songs, everybody wins!

Step one: get into Jeff's home under the premise of doing an interview
Step two: move into bedroom for more "comfort"
Step three: "is it hot in here?" I'm gonna take my clothes off.
Step four: I don't feel comfortable being the only one naked, you should take your clothes off too.
Step five: "you have a gorgeous cock"
Step six: Jeff is surprised at the Boogie Nights reference
Step seven: "you like that movie?"
Step eight: "i love that movie."
Step nine: "we should watch that movie."
Step ten: "no. let's make that movie."